1. Kaizen inspires local
operational excellence
across CHEP sites
Over the last 30 months CHEP New Zealand has been rolling out a structured approach to
continuous improvement using ‘Kaizen’ methodology to bring renewed vigour to improving service
centre operations.
Kaizen (a Japanese word meaning ‘small
change for betterment’) has been credited with
improving, and in some cases transforming,
the operations of organisations right across
the globe. It is a long-term approach to work
that systematically seeks to achieve small,
incremental changes in processes in order to
improve operational efficiency and quality.
A guiding principle of Kaizen is that
continuous improvement is the responsibility
of every employee, not just a select few.
“Kaizen is a strategy where employees
at all levels work together proactively to
achieve regular, incremental improvements to
operations – in our case, the manufacturing
process,” explains CHEP New Zealand
Operations Excellence Manager, Jai Bhasin.
“It pulls together the collective knowledge
and experience of all employees to improve the
work environment and outputs. Improvements
are made when staff identify waste – whether
it be time or product related – and make small
changes to improve the process.”
By continuing to improve operations there
are immediate benefits for CHEP customers.
Product quality is enhanced and pallets
progress through the maintenance process and
return to the national pool more quickly.
To achieve an individual level of accountability
for positive change, Jai has been leading the
Kaizen rollout. This has involved appointing
Continuous Improvement Champions and
delivering tailored training programmes at each
CHEP service centre.
“The training provides an overview of
the key elements of Kaizen – from building
relationships with employees to lean
leadership - in order to further develop their
understanding and engagement,” he said.
Each site has a range of ‘Kaizen circles’
consisting of three to six people who are
trained and tasked with identifying process
improvements. They work with their respective
production teams to ignite their interest in
contributing ideas, collect, analyse and select
team suggestions, and to implement and
report back on the progress of team proposals.
These teams are supported by service centre
managers to allow them the time and tools
required to fulfil these obligations.
One such tool now being used consistently
is the Visual Performance Monitoring (VPM)
board. These boards show the continuous
monitoring structure of operations, capturing
the status of each shift’s performance on
five elements (safety, quality, punctuality,
our Palmerston North Kaizen team, who
identified significant wastage associated with
the spray painting of pallets. Excess paint
use meant paying overtime for cleaning, and
for the disposal of paint and cleaning fluids.
Over-spraying was also causing problems with
stenciling of the logo and codes on pallets,
with customers unable to read these items.
By setting a target of 20mls of paint used per
pallet, and monitoring performance every two
hours, the team reduced waste and improved
the outcome. Further, this initiative was
subsequently shared with the Christchurch and
Wiri Service Centre teams, who are also now
implementing the same process.
Significant progress has been made in a
short time. An initial continuous improvement
audit was conducted at the end of 2015, which
identified gaps and provided a benchmark to
measure future progress.
As the program further develops it is
expected to result in even greater employee
engagement and increased operational
improvements.
productivity and volume) every two hours.
Importantly VPM boards also reflect any
concerns on these items, enabling issues to be
addressed immediately.
With initial site training complete, many small
projects are coming to fruition, adding up to
greater operational excellence overall.
A successful example came recently from
CHEP is a Brambles company l 4Vantage ISSUE 06
“Kaizen is a strategy where
employees at all levels work
together proactively to
achieve regular, incremental
improvements to operations.”
CHEP NZ Operations Excellence Manager
Jai Bhasin
For more information on CHEP’s
continuous improvement program contact
Customer Service on 0800 652 437.
Members of the Palmerston North Kaizen Circle meet regularly to share ideas, discuss progress, and report on
improvements. From left to right: Sean Hook,WillieTalamaivao, Shaun Roelofsz and Kenny Wihongi